SMU Perspectives

SMU Professor Robert Hunt sees the benefits of Artificial Intelligence when it comes to scientific and medical advances. The discovery of new drugs and potentially new and clean energy sources will be expedited because of AI. But Hunt, the author of the new book "All Brain And No Soul — Real Humanity in an AI Age," worries about the cost to humanity to accomplish these goals.  Hunt feels...

SMU Political Science Professors Cal Jillson and Matt Wilson routinely field journalist queries from all over the world. So we thought President Donald Trump's First 100 Days in his second term was an excellent time to pause and reflect upon  the Trump 47 Administration to date. This SMU Perspectives Podcast delivers sharp commentary amid the context of Jillson's and Wilson's observ...

After the architects of the U.S. Constitution framed the role of Congress in Article I, they set about to define the executive branch in Article II and a job description for the U.S. President — whom they envisioned to be a cheerleader for Congress. SMU Professor Jeffrey Engel — director of the Center for Presidential History — notes that vision was relatively short-lived. Professor Engel explains...

We waited to release our latest episode of SMU Perspectives Podcast until October because it’s the month of Halloween and pumpkins and things that go bump in the night. Our guest, SMU English Professor/Poet Greg Brownderville, hails from Pumpkin Bend, Ark., where folklore holds court like a poet-in-residence. It wafts through the Mississippi Delta breeze and lifts up mystical ideas like “marked” b...

In this polarized world it's easy to imagine civility is dead — or at least has one foot in the grave. Dare we try to have an impromptu conversation about presidential politics, religion, guns, abortion or Israel-Gaza, many of us might fall prey to our emotions and the physical hackles rippling through our bodies. But it doesn't have to be that way, says SMU Professor Jill DeTemple. She&...

The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022  seemed like a green light for long-awaited clean energy initiatives. But as James Coleman — an energy law professor at SMU Dallas points out — then reality set in. The $400 Billion to $1.2 Trillion  set aside for our green energy dreams was stalled by cumbersome permitting processes to build power line infrastructure. It may take 10 to 15...

One of the tragic ironies that domestic violence victims face is that they sometimes get arrested and even jailed during the very episode wherein they were abused.  Case in point is a Texas woman who was date raped, abandoned in the driveway of a DFW  home where she was later arrested for DWI and incarcerated. Law students of the Judge Elmo B. Hunter Legal Center for Victims of Crimes Against Wome...

SMU Dallas law professor Christina Sautter is an expert on the type of youthful "retail investors" depicted in the hit film, "Dumb Money," a comedic but serious look at what happened during the GameStop stock episode of 2021.  The cast (including Pete Davidson, Paul Dano, America Ferrara , Nick Offerman and Seth Rogen) carries out a David vs. Goliath storyline "about every...